Second Yangjiang unit enters commercial operation

The company said that 168 hours of demonstration runs were completed at Yangjiang 2 on 5 June meaning the unit had met the required conditions to start commercial operation.

A "pre-operating" certificate signing ceremony was held on 8 June.

Yangjiang 2 is the second of four CPR-1000 pressurized water reactors being built at the site by CGN. Construction of unit 1 started in December 2008, with work on unit 2 beginning in 2009, unit 3 in 2010 and unit 4 in late 2012. The first unit began commercial operation in March last year. The loading of fuel into the reactor of Yangjiang 2 began in late January and the unit was connected to the grid on 10 March.

Construction of two further units at Yangjiang - both ACPR1000 reactors - began in 2013. All six units are scheduled to be in operation by 2019.

With Yangjiang 2 in commercial operation, CGN now has 12 power reactors in operation with a combined generating capacity of 12.7 GWe. The company has a further 11 units in various stages of construction with a combined capacity of 13.4 GWe.